Search results for "LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT"
showing 10 items of 172 documents
Ecological and economic indicators for the evaluation of almond (Prunus dulcis l.) orchard renewal in sicily
2020
Globally, almond production is experiencing a growing trend thanks to a strong interest in the health, gastronomic, and industrial properties that are linked to the fruits and their derivatives. After a constant and marked decline in the second half of the last century, the Mediterranean Basin is thoroughly reassessing this crop, which provides significant results with a modern orchard management. The opportunity determined by the transition from traditional to modern systems have increased the interest in evaluating the different environmental impacts of the two cultivation models that still coexist today. In this work, through the application of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and an econ…
Life cycle methods for environmental assessment of nanotechnology
2012
Tämä tutkielma on kirjallisuuskatsaus, joka antaa yleissilmäyksen erilaisiin elinkaarimetodeihin, joilla voidaan arvioida nanoteknologiaa sisältävien tuotteiden ympäristövaikutuksia. Työssä selvitetään elinkaariajattelun tärkeys ja kuvataan erilaisia ympäristöarviointimenetelmiä. Tässä tutkielmassa tarkastellut menetelmät ovat elinkaariarvionti (LCA), hiilijalanjälki, vesijalanjälki, ekologinen jalanjälki ja ekologinen selkäreppu (MIPS). Työ käsittelee nanoteknologiaan liittyviä ympäristöasioita ja tarkastelee elinkaarimenetelmien soveltamista ja soveltuvuutta nanoteknologiaan. Työn tuloksena raportoidaan, että kuvatut ympäristöarviointimenetelmät soveltuvat nanoteknologian vaikutusten arvi…
Review on Life Cycle Assessment of Solar Photovoltaic Panels
2020
The photovoltaic (PV) sector has undergone both major expansion and evolution over the last decades, and currently, the technologies already marketed or still in the laboratory/research phase are numerous and very different. Likewise, in order to assess the energy and environmental impacts of these devices, life cycle assessment (LCA) studies related to these systems are always increasing. The objective of this paper is to summarize and update the current literature of LCA applied to different types of grid-connected PV, as well as to critically analyze the results related to energy and environmental impacts generated during the life cycle of PV technologies, from 1st generation (traditiona…
Increasing the Circularity of asphalt mixtures: Integrated Sustainability and Circularity Assessment as a progress monitoring tool towards more Circu…
2021
Sustainability and Circular Economy (CE) are two concepts that lately have been profoundly linked to each other. The road engineering industry has gradually been adapting practices that are considered both circular and sustainable. However, not all of these practices entirely consider the whole life environmental and circularity assessment and implications of asphalt mixtures.; which in turn leads to doubtfully circular and sustainable approaches. For this reason in this thesis, after analysing the ways that National Road Authorities implement and communicate CE through questionnaires and web searches, a Material Circularity Index quantifying framework, based on the proposed methodology of …
Resource, environmental and economic considerations in the development of a Reverse Electrodialysis Heat Engine
The RED Heat Engine operates as a closed-loop RED system, where limited amounts of artificial saline solutions are used as working fluids. The solutions exiting from the RED unit are regenerated by means of a separation step, which uses low-temperature heat as its energy source. Essentially the system converts low-grade heat to electricity. There are two main alternative regeneration strategies: (i) extract solvent from the high salinity solution and move it to the low salinity solution or (ii) extract salt from the low salinity solution and move it to the high salinity solution. In this thesis are considered the Multi-effect distillation (MED) and the Membrane Distillation (MD) under the s…
Sustainable design: study of the life cycle assessment of the production and packaging of wine
2003
The object of the study is the identification of the factors that interact with the environment during the production and the packaging of wine. For this aim is use an Economic Input-Output Life -Cycle assessment (EIO-LCA) and I-LCA database to access both the direct and indirect effects of supply chain on the environment and economy. In this phase is examines the impact on the environment by different types of packaging, and transport, the comparisons are made analyses energy, materials consumption and emissions in the environment.
Environmental assessment of energy valorisation of residual agrofood industry biomass in Sicily: a life cycle approach
2020
Anaerobic digestion (AD) uses biomass to produce biogas to generate heat and/or electricity. Several studies have reported that the adoption of AD may not necessarily lead to sustainable practices. For example, energy crops may cause significant impact due to the requirement of intensive agricultural practices. Then, residual biomasses are starting to be considered as alternative biomass for energy valorisation trough AD. In this context, this study assesses the potential environmental impacts related to the energy valorisation of agro-food industry waste though the Life Cycle Assessment methodology (ISO 14040). The system examined consists of a real anaerobic digester coupled with a combin…
Certifcazione ambientale di prodotti agroalimentari LCA dell’olio d’oliva
2009
Oggi viene ampiamente riconosciuta l’importanza di valutare gli impatti ambientali connessi alla produzione dei prodotti agroalimentari. L’applicazione della LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) per la valutazione degli impatti ambientali generati dall’intero ciclo di vita del prodotto risulta particolarmente complessa nel campo alimentare. Ciò a causa delle numerose variabili in gioco, connesse, ad esempio, ai sistemi di coltivazione, specie nell’ottica della definizione delle PCR (Product Category Rules) per la redazione della EPD (Environmental Product Declaration). Il presente studio LCA, effettuato su un olio extravergine d’oliva ottenuto da olive prodotte in Sicilia con sistema di coltivazione…
Consequential life cycle assessment of the Italian power system
2022
Energy production and consumption contribute to 76% of the European greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2018, and 90% of global GHG emissions with land use, land use change and forestation (LULUCF) in the same year. By applying energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RE) technologies, the GHG emission intensity of the energy sector reduced by 1.3% in 2018 compared to the previous year. The current climate change policy aims at decarbonization, sustainable environment, economic prosperity and social equity. It requires the deep decarbonisation of the economies, meaning that the energy and power systems as well as other emission intensive sectors need to transform into zero-emission ones. …
Lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles: combining Environmental and Social Life Cycle Assessments
2018
Electric vehicles (xEV) are a key low carbon technology for mobility. Although xEV have no tailpipe emissions, the production of traction batteries leads to environmental and social burdens. In this context, authors assess the environmental and social impacts of a cell of Lithium ion traction battery in order to identify the most relevant aspects and the potential added value of performing both the assessments. Results show the relevance of the resources in terms of both environmental and social impacts. Moreover, the social assessment results pointed out the relevance of the geographical boundaries, often overlooked for in the environmental analysis. The combination of both the assessment …